Unemployment claims have spiked this month
Thousands of Oklahomans who have been unemployed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic are causing a spike in the state’s unemployment numbers as they surpass a year without work.
Weekly data reported by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission shows initial unemployment claims doubled over the past month. Virtually all of the “new” claimants are people who’ve been on unemployment for a year and needed to renew their expired claims.
After being on unemployment benefits for 52 weeks, claimants are required by the U.S. Department of Labor to refile for benefits.
“It’s probably not 100% of (the spike), but I think that’s a really good indicator that we’re seeing people refiling for their next benefit year and we’re seeing those show up in the initial claims,” said OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt.
OESC reported this week that it received 17,997 initial claims, an increase of 4,145 from the previous week’s level of 13,852. Last year at this time, there were 54,481 new claims in Oklahoma
as businesses closed their doors and laid off workers at the beginning of the pandemic.
The report also showed the fourweek moving average of continuing claims rose slightly after 40 weeks of consecutive declines.
Payment problems
Some people who receive their unemployment benefits via direct deposit experienced delays this week from the state’s payment vendor, Conduent.
In a statement, Conduent said it initiated new security measures over the past few days.
“Unfortunately, these additional measures have resulted in unanticipated delays in direct deposits for some OESC-administered accounts,” the company said. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing, and our team is working aggressively to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
OESC didn’t know about the security changes or delays until Oklahomans began commenting on social media earlier this week, according to Zumwalt.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. They know that. The situation should be resolved for 99% of claimants Monday, but if it’s not, then we’ll go back to the drawing board,” she said Friday. “They have told me that all direct deposits have been released to banks as of today and should be in accounts by Monday. Better late than never, but it’s definitely not an acceptable way to notify us or to run that process.”
Laney Stevens was among the affected and said this week has been a “nightmare.”
After filing her weekly claims on Sunday, “Conduent is supposed to transfer to my bank account so funds are available to use Wednesday,” Stevens said. “In the beginning, Conduent blamed OESC and vice versa.”
Stevens said Friday that her issue has been resolved, but for so many others, it’s not.
“Payment for this week will not be available until next week since it’s now the weekend. And we’re left worrying, will this happen again next week?” she said. “Not the first issue OESC and Conduent have had working together; I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
Zumwalt added that she would be notifying the state treasurer, who oversees the Conduent contract. She also expressed frustration about reports that Conduent’s customer service had told some claimants that OESC suspended direct deposits.
“That is absolutely not true,” she said. “This is a Conduent issue. If we could fix that we would, but we’re relying on them as our state vendor to fix it.”
Career fairs scheduled
To assist Oklahomans who need to find work, OESC has scheduled seven job fairs across the state next month.
The events will take place in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, McAlester and Enid, and a virtual career fair is available for those who can’t make the inperson events. Zumwalt said nearly 100 employers have already signed up to participate.
Companies can sign up at http://regpack.com/reg/OESC to participate in one or more of the fairs.
The Oklahoman and LOCALiQ are partnering with ZipRecruiter for a job fair on May 19 at the OKC Fairgrounds.
Companies wishing to attend that career fair can sign up by contacting Jerry Wagner at 475-3475, or email jwagner@oklahoman.com.
Unemployment across the country
U.S. unemployment claims dropped to 576,000 last week, down 193,000 claims from 769,000 the week prior on a seasonally adjusted basis.
This marks the lowest level of new U.S. jobless claims since before the pandemic.
But Sarah House, a senior economist at Wells Fargo, isn’t celebrating just yet.
“It’s another week of whiplash,” House said, referencing the unexpected jump in claims two weeks ago. She said jobless claims have remained stubbornly high even as more businesses have reopened and brought back workers, and this week’s data puts claims more in line with other economic indicators.
“It still remains really high for where we are in this overall recovery, (such as) the fact that hiring has picked up substantially,” she said.
House noted that last week’s claims are still on par with some of the worst weeks of the 2009 recession, and pointed to California’s decrease of more than 75,000 claims between last week and the week prior as a major driver of the overall U.S. decline in claims.
New U.S. claims peaked in the pandemic in early April, just over a year ago. Since then, claims have slowly fallen, hovering between 700,000-800,000 weekly for the past month as more states are loosening restrictions on restaurants, movie theaters and bowling alleys, among other businesses, and those businesses are calling back workers.
Still, new jobless claims have remained at elevated levels, and are nearly three times as high when compared with 2019 levels of about 200,000 weekly claims.
North Dakota saw the largest percentage increase in weekly claims, with claims jumping by 168.6%. Virginia, meanwhile, saw the largest percentage drop in new claims, with claims dropping by 81%.
Adrienne Roberts and Kristi Tanner contributed to this report. Staff writer Dale Denwalt covers technology, aerospace and Oklahoma business news for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Dale? He can be reached at ddenwalt@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @denwalt. Purchase a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.